What are the things you carry everyday as a business professional? What are your most indispensable tools that make work and life easy for you. These business professionals and influencers shared their most valued resources with their followers when LinkedIn asked them to write about something important that they carry with them each day.
1. Richard Branson
Founder at Virgin Group
I couldn’t get through the workday without my assistant, Helen. While gadgets like smartphones and tablets certainly do have a huge positive impact upon my working life, it is the people around me who really make the difference. Helen is my memory.
She travels the world with me, is delightful to have around, and is extremely adaptable and sociable wherever we find ourselves. Back in the beginning I had Penni Pike, a remarkable lady who travelled with me for 28 years.
2. Meg Whitman
CEO at Hewlett-Packard
As CEO of HP, I spend a lot of time on the road, traveling around the world to meet with customers, investors and employees. Last year alone, I spent more than 60% of my time traveling. I keep my phone loaded with playlists that I use to tune out the noise and help me concentrate while traveling.
I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t include at least one plug for HP. One item I can’t travel without is the HP Envy x2. I use it as a notebook to send emails and handle work.When I want to unwind, I slide off the screen and use it as a tablet to watch a movie and decompress.
3. Matt Barrie
Chief Executive at Freelancer.com
There’s a few tools I use that turbocharge how I work. Unsurprisingly for me, these tools are all software-based. The first killer app for running my business is the Google Apps suite. Similarly I’m now making heavy use of Evernote. It’s basically augmented memory for me. A combination of Google Apps, Evernote andDropbox are allowing me to really run a paperless office.
Finally, there’s one crazy little app that is a massive time saver for me. It’s called Hellofax. When you sign up, you take a photo of your signature and upload it. With these few apps, I save a lot of time and hassle, and they allow me to run my business from anywhere and still get everything done without feeling stranded.
4. Vivian Schiller
Head of News at Twitter
When I travel, which is now two or three times a week, the goal is to carry nothing with me— or as close to nothing as possible. No laptops, just an iPad; no printouts, no books, they’re all on my Kindle.
My purse has an iPhone, a comb, wallet, lipstick and a pen— if I’m lucky. I have this continuous need to shed things and de-clutter. Our working world has become so multi-dimensional that even figuring out the day to day is a challenge, not to mention navigating the future. It’s become so complicated that you can’t see the signal for the noise. And stuff is noise to me.
5. Diego Rodriguez
Partner at IDEO
I spend my days at IDEO talking and working with people across all our various open-space buildings (we don’t have any hallways or closed offices). I do have a small desk which I rarely use.
Here’s everything populating my organisational gardening shed (that’s my stuff in the photo above):
- a really comfortable backpack
- my laptop, the ultimate mobile communication hub
- headphones, perfect for that impromptu Skype chat
- the obligatory iPhone
- power supplies, because who ever wants to be low, slow, and out of juice?
- pens for leaving notes
- fresh whiteboard markers
- my favorite magazine, because to be inspiring you need to be inspired, and 15 minutes spent perusing my passion is as refreshing as a nap
You simply can’t cultivate creativity if you’re tethered to a desk. These allow me to garden no matter where I might be.
6. Michael Moritz
Chairman, Sequoia Capital
The really useful devices aren’t the humdrum necessities usually cited: the iPod with the workout playlists, a cell phone, the neck pillow for long plane rides, a set of Beats, FaceTime and Google Hangouts, or the Sudafed for sleepless nights in strange hotels. Nor are the software programs which have millions in their grip: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Keynote, Bloomberg and Salesforce.
Irrespective of age, the tools to count on are a well-educated mind, sound body, the power of self-expression and – above all — the accumulated, thoroughly digested and highly filtered sum of our worldly and emotional experiences.
7. Dan Frommer
Tech Editor at Quartz
You can have my iPad and keep my phone. But don’t dare take my Twitter. Since I joined the site more than 5 years ago, nothing has had a more dramatic effect on the way I work. Beyond the obvious basics like email and the web, Twitter has become the single most-important service I use every day. Seriously. Sharing my work — and the rest of my life — on Twitter has helped build my audience and reputation more than any other tool I’ve used.
8. Danny Sullivan
Editor-In-Chief, Search Engine Land
What do I find it absolutely essential to carry when I’m out-and-about? My smartphone immediately comes to mind. It makes me wish it could replace that other essential, my wallet, as well as my car keys.
Really, my smartphone is my everything. All my contacts. My schedule. Important notes. My email. My access to social media sites. My browser to the broader web, where I can check on anything.
Usually, I carry two different phones, an iPhone 5 on AT&T and a Galaxy Nexus on Verizon. Staying connected is so important that I have backup across two different carriers.
Image courtesy myvitalkit.com